NEW YEARS
EVE AT WINTERLAND 1972. With over 2300 live performances to their name,
some of the Grateful Dead's finest shows of all were their monumental
New Year's Eve gigs, performed almost annually across four decades. Playing
through or even following the traditional midnight countdown, the Dead
would continue long into the early hours of the new year, undertaking
sets ambitious in length even by the Dead's astonishing standards. The
Dead's NYE 1972 show at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco was no exception.
Taking to the stage the very moment 1973 began, the assembled 5000 or
so Deadheads were, as of the stroke of midnight, witness to almost four
hours of the extraordinary music that would cement the Grateful Dead's
place in the musical history books. Simultaneously broadcast by KSAN over
local FM radio for the benefit of those without tickets, the audio sound
on this archive release is simply astonishing. Boasting a strong line
up - although sadly missing the presence of founding member Ron Pigpen
McKernan - consisting of Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, husband-and-wife duo
Keith and Donna Godchaux, Phil Lesh and duelling drummers Bill Kreutzmann
and Mickey Hart, the lengthy show includes a host of early Dead classics
alongside what were then more contemporary numbers. Available here on
triple CD format for the first time, this boxed set will doubtless end
up an essential title in the finest Grateful Dead collections worldwide.

From
the DeadBase review:
"The Trucking>Other One from this show has a kind of fluid interstellar
momentum that to my ear has never been equalled before or since.I have
never heard a jam more evocative of "deep space" than this one,
and after 17 years it remains at the top of my personal list of the greatest
Dead jams of all time.
(. . .) The whole first set of this show crackles with energy. Mexicali
and Box of Rain are standouts, and the Playin is one of their best short
versions. The big second set jam blew us all into outer space - and some
of us have remained there to this day." (Gary Ross)